Laugh Out Loud
by rrand06
Summary: Ashley goes out of her way to make Andros laugh. Oneshot -Power Rangers does not belong to me.


"What are you doing?" Andros asked, looking across the bridge at Ashley who turned to him innocently.

"I'm not doing anything," she said with a smile, turning back to the console in front of her.

Andros eyed her carefully for a moment before turning his attention back to his own console, wondering if the countless hours of work on the Megaship had started to make him see things. He pressed a few buttons, still glancing at her from the corner of his eye. But she was relatively still, only tapping her fingernails lightly in front of her as she looked down at a console and compared whatever she saw there with whatever was on the clipboard on her lap.

But just as quickly as he turned back to his work, he thought he saw her turn to him again and he looked up at her as quickly as he could, just in time to see her turn back to her work.

"What are you doing?" he asked again.

"What do you mean?" Ashley asked, more innocent than before.

"You did _something_," Andros said. "I don't know what exactly, but you _did _do something."

"I really don't know what you're talking about, Andros," Ashley said with a shrug.

Andros shook his head to himself and turned back to his work, his eyes never leaving Ashley as she began pressing buttons on the console. He busied his hands with various buttons and papers in front of him, still keeping his eyes on her as he pretended to do work. It was not long before he saw Ashley's head turn toward him a little, finally lifting from her work and facing him completely.

Andros snapped up his head quickly, finding Ashley crossing her eyes at him with her tongue out at him. As soon as their eyes met, Ashley erupted into giggles.

"Why are you making faces at me?" Andros asked with a smile.

"To win a bet," Ashley said.

"A bet?"

"Zhane bet me five bucks that I couldn't make you laugh," Ashley said.

"Big spender," Andros said sarcastically. "Why?"

"Because I've never heard you laugh before," Ashley replied, taking the two bands from her wrist and pulling her hair into two uneven ponytails. "I didn't even know you could smile for about two months. And Zhane told me that he's only heard you laugh twice in your whole life."

"He hasn't known me my whole life, Ashley," Andros said. "And you've heard me laugh before."

"Not a real laugh," Ashley said, leaning over in her seat and rolling both of her pant legs up to her knees. "In fact, you barely seem to have any fun at all here."

"There's work to do," Andros said.

"There's always work to do, Andros," Ashley said, rolling her eyes. "But there's this thing called fun and you don't have it very often. Now why is that?"

"Because I… No, wait. I have fun sometimes," Andros protested. "I play basketball with you guys and we play pool sometimes."

"Three times," Ashley said with a grin. "We only played pool three times. And I think you played basketball with us six out of the twenty times that we played."

"We only stopped playing pool together because you started pouting when I got good at it," Andros pointed out with a smile. "But I don't exactly have time for fun with keeping the ship up and running and doing chores and –"

"All things that we help you do every day," Ashley said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a pair of large red-rimmed sunglasses and tilted them on her nose so that one eye peeked from under them.

Andros shook his head at her, but said nothing.

"And with Zhane here, everything gets done faster," she continued, taking a multicolored beaded necklace from her pants pocket and putting them around her neck. She glanced over at Andros to see his reaction, but his expression only seemed to tell her that she was wasting her time.

"Speaking of fun," Ashley said, able to hide her frustration under her sunglasses. "You and I never had that second date that you promised me."

"We never agreed on a day to do it," Andros said. "But I didn't forget… it's just, you know…"

"Work," Ashley finished with a sigh, taking out a tube of lipstick from her jacket pocket. "But today would be perfect for a second date, Andros. We've done just about all the work that we could today and a date isn't that long."

Andros watched stoically as Ashley began to put blue lipstick onto her lips, caking it on fairly thick and tracing the outside of her lips with it as well. She nonchalantly put a large dot of lipstick on the tip of her nose before putting the lipstick back into her pocket.

"Ashley," Andros began with a sigh.

"No, no," Ashley said, letting out a breath just as she realized that she would have to pull out all the stops. "Before you say anything more, I want to give you six reasons that you should stop working right now… through the art of interpretive dance."

Andros bit his lip as Ashley began to hum loudly, swaying her hips back and forth as she slowly made her way over to him. He held his breath as she got closer to him, knowing that he might laugh at any moment.

"Ba-ba-da-da di-doo –pow!" Ashley sang aloud, sensually removing her jacket and teasing Andros' hands with the jacket's sleeve.

"Ashley," Andros started again, stopped when Ashley placed a finger to his lips as she continued to dance around him and hum.

"Ba-ba-doo, ba-da-da, di-di-dow," Ashley continued to hum, sitting on Andros' lap and stroking his cheek.

"Ashley," Andros said with a smile, his eyes watering with the laugh that refused to surface in her presence.

"Yes?" Ashley asked, batting her eyes at him.

"You've convinced me," he said.

"Have I?" Ashley asked with a blue grin.

"Yes. I can honestly say that I've never seen a more convincing interpretive dance," Andros answered. "So, I'll be happy to take you out on a date… today. In fact, if you want to go right now I think that I could let DECA take over the work for a while."

"Um, sure," Ashley replied. "Should I go change?"

"Only if you want to," Andros said with a shrug.

"You're made of stone, Andros," Ashley replied, shaking her head at him. But she was still smiling as she slid off of his lap and walked out of the bridge.

Andros watched as she left and sighed when he heard the Megalift doors open.

"Ba-da-da, di-di-dow," he muttered to himself softly, picturing Ashley's sensual moves and strange makeup. He laughed quietly to himself, trying to take a minute to look back over his work. But as soon as he picked up the paperwork, Ashley's image came to him again and he laughed a little louder.

"Did I miss something?" a giggly voice asked. "And are you actually laughing?"

Andros turned to Ashley with a smile, who stood standing at the doorway with Zhane who seemed fairly surprised to see Andros laughing.

"I had to see it for myself," Zhane said, pulling a five dollar bill from his pocket. "It's definitely a laugh, though not as boisterous a laugh as I'd like… I don't know, Ash. I just don't think it'll be enough to win the bet."

Ashley gave a little scowl before grabbing Andros' arm, pulling herself to him, and kissing the side of his face, smearing blue lipstick all over his left cheek with a giggle and listening joyfully at the sound of Andros' laughter as she finally let him go and he wiped his face with his hand.

"She wins, Zhane," Andros laughed, looking almost fondly at his lipstick-smeared hand.

Ashley sighed happily, linking arms with Andros and leading him away from the bridge as Zhane stood shaking his head at them.

"Your winnings, madam," Zhane called to her, holding up the money.

"You keep it," Ashley said over her shoulder, leaving Zhane smiling to himself as their laughter faded with the closing of the Megalift's doors.


End file.
